By Clint Thompson
Effective nematicides were a focal point of a presentation on nematodes at the recent Citrus & Specialty Crop Expo event in Fort Myers, Florida.
Johan Desaeger, assistant professor of entomology and nematology at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, updated growers and industry leaders about what chemical options are available and their impact on nematodes. An emphasis was placed on how they are much safer to use.
“That’s really something that we never had for nematocides was something that didn’t have a skull and bones label, right?” Desaeger said. “So now, at least we have Velum, we have Nimitz, we have Salibro. Growers are starting to get familiar with it, because whenever you have a new product, it takes some time for growers to accept it and to trust it. But I can tell it’s slowly, slowly starting to trickle in.
“Knowing that they have a product where it’s never going to hurt them, whatever happens; if it’s an incident, it’s still going to be fine. Having that from nematicides is really almost revolutionary, right?”
Long Residual
One of the other main benefits of the new nematicides is how long they remain in the soil. The chemicals’ residuals allows for a reduction in applications needed during the season.
“When you’re applying nematicide in the crop, and it’s usually drip applied, so the way it moves is important. But the residual, the soil residual you get from a nematicide is also something that’s very important,” Desaeger said. “If you have a product that has a long residual, it means you’re not going to have to reapply the product all the time. Vydate was one of those products, it’s quite effective, but it doesn’t hang around long. In our warm climate, within a week or so, all that Vydate is gone.
“These new nematicides tend to have more residual. In case of Velum, it’s quite long, which has some negative, potential consequences, too, like resistance development. But I think having the variety of products now, they have different properties as far as their residual, their solubility. They have different modes of action. So now you can alternate nematicides to reduce the risk of resistance development.”